Amarillo city commissioners gave preliminary approval for making 544 acres of land near the Bell Helicopter Military Aircraft Assembly Center into a reinvestment zone which would allow taxing entities to grant tax abatements to Bell and future businesses.

Bell’s current facilities are in an existing reinvestment zone, but it can’t be expanded.

“This will be good for five years and can be renewed,” said city Planning Director Kelley Shaw.

The Bell expansion, which is underway, will result in a new, 249,000 square-foot building with an estimated project cost of $27 million, according to a letter to the city from Amarillo Economic Development Corp. President and CEO Buzz David. It will house more than 100 employees.

“This phase of the Bell Helicopter campus will provide support operations for the newly added Relentless 525 commercial helicopter and the other military product lines currently being assembled in Amarillo,” the letter states.

The 43 acre tract for the expansion is on the north side of Airport Boulevard and the remaining four tracts are on the south side.

“Site selectors around the country are constantly looking for sites that are shovel ready, and this moves us closer to that,” said Brian Jennings, vice president for business development at AEDC.

With final approval, this will be Amarillo’s eighth reinvestment zone.

Commissioners also heard a report on the development of a program to send private irrigation contractors to the houses of people who use more than 35,000 gallons of water a month. The contractors would be paid by the city through a fund of $250,000 to inspect irrigation systems at the houses, educate the homeowners on adjusting them and do minor repairs.

“A lot of them probably haven’t been adjusted since they were installed,” said Assistant City Manager Dean Frigo.

The inspections would be by appointment and would not be mandatory.

The city will issue a request for proposals to begin selecting contractors for the program.

In other business, the commission recognized the test class of residents who got extensive lessons in how the city operates. The program is called Amarillo 101 and is patterned after an education program city staff developed for new commissioners.

The inaugural class had 14 members, but the city will expand both the class size and number of field trips members take to see city operations.

“March 21 we will start Amarillo 101 for real,” said City Manager Jarrett Atkinson. “Anyone who is interested, we want to hear from them.”

The major requirement is good attendance and a commitment to spend long hours. The new program will have five classroom sessions on Thursday nights and three half-day sessions on Saturdays for the 20 members of the class.

The goals of the program include establishing ambassadors to inform the public about how the city works and to educate potential members of city advisory commissions.

“While the amount of information you gave us was sometimes overwhelming, it was fascinating,” said Richard Biggs, one of the participants.

Several of the class members said they gained an enhanced appreciation for the jobs city staff do.

“We may curse the time it takes to complete a project, but where would we be without their due diligence?,” said class member Patrick Miller.

At the meeting, commissioners also filled some vacancies, naming Inda Crawford to be an associate judge in municipal court, filling the position that will be left Jan. 1 when Sonya Letson moves up to be presiding judge. They reappointed Carson Burgess to the Board of Review for Landmarks and Historic Districts and appointed L.B. Perkins and Tom Thatcher to that board. They also named Walt Kelley to be a new member of the city Traffic Commission.